"THE GATHERING TOGETHER" -- FALSE TWI INTERPRETATION

[Charity]

On 2/24/2025 at 7:24 PM, Twinky said:

I'm so glad that if I ever heard this cr@p [resurrection/rising], I've forgotten it.  But likely, I never heard of it.  TWI had found some other atom to try splitting, with nonsensical purpose.

If there's a resurrection/rising, or rapture, or whatever, then it's beyond my puny capabilities to affect it.  Therefore, I will expend my energies on something more useful in the here and now...

... helping the disadvantaged, the homeless, those with little in this life.  Those with too much trouble in this life. Those with no hope and nothing to look forward to.

After spending time in OldSkool's book of prophecies which repeatedly spoke of the benefit of a rapture (for the faithful) happening right before the tribulation begins, I'd mostly forgotten how scripture has been interpreted to teach such very different views concerning the key belief of the return of Christ.  Your post, therefore, came as a bit of an eye-opener again for me.

I'd heard that the rapture doctrine was accepted elsewhere in the world at first but then became less popular.  I checked your church's website and the last belief listed is "The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven on earth."  No mention of the rapture, tribulation or the millennium. 

Then I did a couple more searches and saw that Wikipedia says:

The Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Reformed denominations have no tradition of a preliminary return of Christ.

A pretribulational rapture view is most commonly found among American Fundamentalist Baptists, Bible churches, Brethren churches, certain Methodist denominations, Pentecostals, non-denominational evangelicals, and various other evangelical groups.

I recognize the value of your last sentence as well as the secular enjoyments you list under your name. 

 

[Charity]

In reference to my post above, William Brooks (aka OldSkool) has recently downloaded a new prophecy called A Segue for The Faithful in Christ, Then Sudden Destruction on Earth..  IOW, it's again about the rapture and the following tribulation that will soon happen.  This time though, the article is to give comfort to those who are having doubts such as these two quotes show:

"Why are you downcast, my loves? Why does your enthusiasm wane?"

"Why is my bride long of face in sadness and disappointment, as if they have been jilted by an unfaithful bridegroom?"

It also seems to be for those who are struggling with sin and therefore, I assume, are afraid of not being faithful enough to be included in the rapture.

For anyone interested, I will share more later in the thread Spirit of Prophesy by William Brooks a.k.a. OldSkool.

[Twinky]

On 2/27/2025 at 5:53 PM, Charity said:

I checked your church's website and the last belief listed is "The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven on earth."  No mention of the rapture, tribulation or the millennium. 

Are you on the right church's website, Charity?
This is StACC/Holy Trinity Combe Down (HTCD) (two of the four churches in the benefice).  St Andrew's Community Church, Foxhill | HTCD

[Charity]

2 hours ago, Twinky said:

Are you on the right church's website, Charity?
This is StACC/Holy Trinity Combe Down (HTCD) (two of the four churches in the benefice).  St Andrew's Community Church, Foxhill | HTCD

I googled the St Andrews Community Church in UK and went with this website ST. ANDREWS COMMUNITY CHURCH.  Thank you for correcting me and I apologize for misrepresenting you.

I should have asked you directly after your previous post whether you believed in the rapture doctrine or not.  I assumed you did not. 

[Twinky]

That's cool, Charity.  There's a fair few St Andrews churches around.  That's about 100 miles away.

 

The rapture?  I dunno. I have known people who are really rapturous about it.  Thesssalonians talks about a gathering together in the sky (I think that's "the rapture").  I think some of that could be figurative language.

I live in hope and expectation of the return of Jesus, which could be in my lifetime or some time after that.  As a new young (adult) Christian, I was so excited and hoped that every day would be The Day.  It's a bit more of a deep, slower burn now.

But as it is beyond me to affect when any "gathering together" may (or may not) occur, in the meantime, I'm getting on with loving God and loving my fellow humans as best I can.  Some days I'm better at that than others.  

Theologian-types can get really hung up on minutiae.  And there are all sorts of fancy names for religious theories, rituals, bells, smells, garments, items used in church services.  I care for absolutely none of that.  I keep things as simple as I can.  Live decently.

[oldiesman]

Now I'm always looking for preterist commentaries.   Here is another one, from purportedly a non-preterist who actually refers to preterism as "nutty".   But his writing is well taken and I think he does an excellent job of explaining "partial preterism" and "full preterism".     

I can't speak authoritatively about preterism because I'm still trying to absorb it all.      It takes some "visioning".   All I know is, it's refreshing to learn about new things like this.    

https://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-preterism-second-coming-and-hell.html